Where Sunbeams End And Starlight Begins
by shimmerinstars
Summary: An old item gives Dean a chance to recapture a treasured memory.


Disclaimer: Don't own the boys.

Thanks to Jedi Sapphire for the beta on this.

Summary: An old item gives Dean a chance to recapture a treasured memory.

o0o

Sam wasn't crazy about motorcycles. He wouldn't get on one unless it was a matter of life and death - and so far it hadn't come to that. Between a nasty spill he took as a teenager with a cousin escaping serious injury, and the adult knowledge of what could happen to the human body traveling at a high speed if that were to repeat itself.

No one could get Sam on a motorcycle.

It was a challenge Dean intended to take on and win.

Dean had decided on that while they stayed at Rufus's place working a nearby job, when he'd come across an old and very neglected motorcycle tucked away in a shed on the outskirts of the deceased hunter's property.

The motorcycle was, as Dean put it, in need of "some serious love" and he planned on giving it plenty.

When he showed Sam the old bike and told him of his plans to get it up and running, Sam told him it looked like a challenge and to have fun, but not to expect him to ever get on it.

"We'll see, Sammy. We'll see" Dean told him with a grin. It grew even larger when his brother rolled his eyes and walked away.

Sam hadn't always felt this way and Dean knew it and this bike was the key to finding that time and place again. Something Dean very much needed to revisit.

But to do that, Dean needed time to work on the bike. So he planned on finding jobs in a close enough radius to keep them at Rufus's long enough to get it done.

o0o

The brothers had been closing in on a rogue vampire, their original reason for bunking at Rufus's. When they finally corned the elusive creature and took its head. It put an end to the trail of bodies they had followed through three states.

Taking a trip into the nearby town Dean found or ordered everything he needed to repair the bike and he spent the next few days working on it. With the radio blasting it was a way to escape what he and Sam did.

It wasn't long before the brothers got wind of another job. This time it was a nasty Poltergeist wreaking havoc on a family in the next city over from them. It took a lot of research and investigation but they were eventually able to put a name to that spirit and expel it and give a very grateful family back their peaceful home.

After treating themselves to pizza and some down time with a movie, Sam pulled Dean over to his laptop on the kitchen table and punched up a folder which contained all the information for their next job. One involving what Sam suspected was a shapeshifter.

Dean leaned in to skim over everything his brother had collected. "A shifter, huh ? He looked up at Sam. "It's been a while since we've come across one." Nodding in agreement Sam smiled and gave Dean that look which always made him feel uncomfortable, the one that said his little brother always knew what he was up to.

But of course Sam knew he wanted to stay to finish the bike. That went without saying. But did Sam know why? Did he even remember? Dean questioned.

The job of tracking down the shapeshifter was a particularly frustrating one in how clues and leads seemed to pop up and then disappear. But it was in these lulls that Dean got to release some of that frustration by finishing up the bike. And he was ready to test it out

Try as Dean might he couldn't get his little brother to join him. Compliments and telling him to go and enjoy was the limit of what Sam offered.

The first ride was satisfying in that Dean had achieved and accomplished his goal of getting the motorcycle up and running. But it was also very emotional as he was now remembering why it meant so much for him to do this.

While he drove memories began to flood back in. He was seventeen and Sam twelve when their dad first introduced them to Zach a friend who had agreed to take them in while John and a group of hunters tracked a nest of vampires into the next state.

Zach being a hunter himself wasn't around much that month they stayed with him but he managed to ensure the brothers ate well, did their homework and got the chores done he assigned them each week. Which wasn't hard with Dean knowing if he and Sam followed the rules he could use one of Zach's motorcycles on the weekend.

The brothers spend hours riding on the rural roads and smaller highways in the area. Often they traveled on stretches of just hills and trees, beautiful countryside with rarely a sign of civilization. Stopping when and where they pleased if it interested them or not stopping at all

Here on the open road with no destination or worry they were free from everything dark and bloody and Supernatural in their lives.

Dean smiled as he remembered his favorite part of those rides. When he'd start to pick up speed and Sam would wrap his arms tightly around his waist. Dean didn't know who it made feel more secure himself or his little brother.

What he did know is he had found a contentment he'd never known before in his life. Where he had everything he ever needed or wanted.

o0o

In their usual disguise as FBI agents the brothers had asked the local law enforcement to notify them of anything connected to the whereabouts of the shifter - or, as at they put it to the authorities anything that connected to this very odd case of break- ins, theft and people being reported in two places at once.

But after a week with no new leads or a job to work, Sam and Dean decided it was time to head out

Planning on leaving the following morning. Dean was busy under the hood of the Impala, replacing a much-needed part before they took off,while Sam did a final search online for any possible hints to where the shifter might have gone.

"Dean." Sam called out approaching his brother stopping to lower the music. " I just got a call from the Sheriff. He's trying to calm down a group of people seriously freaking out."

"Let me guess Sammy." Dean straightened up to face his brother. "One person, two places?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "He figured it was our thing being odd."

"We do have that reputation don't we?" Dean said trying to suppress a smile. His brother while talking had also been surmising by the expression on his face there was no way they could take the Impala. It was a combination of dread, bitchface and WTF?

"I can handle this myself Sammy." Dean offered knowing full well Sam would never allow that

"No way." Sam answered as expected.

"You sure?" Dean asked trying hard to hide how much Sam amused him in this situation.

"Yes Dean." Sam said practically gritting his teeth 'Theres no way I'm letting you go check this out alone."

"You know I didn't plan this?" Dean stated.

"I don't see how you could have." Sam answered. Which to Dean meant Sam was trying to figure out how he did it.

Handing his brother a helmet, the boys were soon out on the main road headed for the Sheriff's office.

Dean swore he could feel Sam's eyes drilling a hole in the back of his head. But he really hadn't planned this

o0o

From the Sheriff's office the boys were directed to a nearby train station that was crowded with baffled law enforcement personal. Here in the Womens bathroom they found the gross remains of the shape shifters latest human disguise and outside it they talked with the "original copy." But she couldn't give them or the local police anything concrete to go on. Spotting her duplicate purchasing a ticket sent the woman and her family into shock and remembering very little.

Again not a lead to the shifters whereabouts or the human form it had taken and all the evidence seemed to point to it leaving town.

It was late afternoon when they had finished talking to every possible witness and exhausted every angle of looking at this.

Here their hunt for the shape shifter had officially hit a brick wall.

o0o

Standing in front of Dean's new pride and joy Sam caught his big brother completely off guard.

"How about we give this bike a real test drive?"

"What?" Dean asked, sure he'd heard wrong.

"It wasn't so bad the ride over." Sam said lightly.

"Are you sure?" Dean asked not knowing what to make of Sam's sudden change of heart.

"Yes," Sam shrugged his shoulders. "Guess I had to be pushed back on one to see that."

Dean handed Sam his helmet giving him a questioning look. Then he grabbed his own.

On the road they passed the exit to Rufus's place and headed for the entrance to the local highway. Soon the traffic and civilization gave way to hills and trees and open countryside. If Dean had any doubt that Sam remembered that time so long ago and treasured those rides together, as much as he did, the two arms that wrapped gently around his waist removed all doubt.

Giving his brothers hand a knowing squeeze Dean drove a little faster and lost himself in the bliss of reliving how great this felt

The open road, the wind in his face and the person who meant the most to him in the world holding onto him. This is what he wanted and what he needed to remember.

A time before Angels entered their lives with the evilest of intentions and who demonstrated with great arrogance their capacity for unimaginable horror, destruction and heartache on a global and personal level.

Yet somehow he and Sam, beaten down, and broken by both the powers of Heaven and Hell had managed not only to survive but to defeat them, together.

o0o

They drove watching as the sun set, the beauty of the sunbeams becoming starlight adding to the magic of their escape. They shared so much of what only the other could understand. The majority of it being dark, negative, and full of pain.

But not here.

Dean had come full circle. He had found serenity again with his brother on an old bike. It was a place where the outside world could not enter. A place only they together could create and share. Where they both were content and the world looked beautiful and at peace. If only for a moment, it was theirs to keep forever.


End file.
